According to ArtificialOwl.com, this smallpox hospital was Opened in 1856, on the southern tip of Blackwell's Island (now Roosevelt Island) was part of a multitude of public institutions to care for New York City's unfortunate and destitute.
The island sits between Queens and Manhattan, and was easily accessible by ferry; it was home to a prison, insane asylum, and other similar facilities. As of 1872, an annual number of 7,000 patients were treated, with an average of 450 deaths.
The island was renamed Welfare Island in 1921, and in the 1950s many of the institutions on the island became obsolete and were abandoned.

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I’m looking forward to doing a CHIVE post in 20 years called “Abandoned Cancer hospital is a reminder of disease gone by”…